DOWN THE PUB

He raced the ex-moss Lotus 18 at Monaco “I was supposed to race John Elliott’s Lotus 18 but on Monday I got an invitation to race the ex-sir Stirling Moss Lotus 18. Phil Keen couldn’t drive it as originally planned, so I was asked if I could drive it? We got my dad Michael the drive in the other Lotus 18 and we ended up with a car each, which was quite exciting.”

The Moss car is very special “I was in the car, the 1961 car Sir Stirling Moss drove in Monaco. We took the side panels off in the race, just as they did back in 1961. The scrutineers were a bit concerned that it looked different to the car’s FIA papers.”

He brought it home safely “It was a little bit daunting in the first session. I drove round thinking ‘what am I doing in this valuable racing car driving round Monaco?’ But the second session was better and in the race I had a good scrap with Iain Rowley and really enjoyed it.”

Moss was there “We met Sir Stirling on the Saturday and we sat with him and chatted about the car. It was great fun when we took the side panels off. I thought I’d get loads of air rushing through the car and I was expecting loads of bits to come up into my crash helmet. But after the out-lap, I never noticed.”

He was still hot in the car “It was done to keep the driver cool, but I still got out of it sweating. I think that was the pressure! We had the original Bungee strap over the rear bodywork as they did in 1961, because the side panels hold the rear tail down.” He raced against his father “What an experience for both me and my dad to be in the same race. He out-qualified me so I was sat on the grid at Monaco in Sir Stirling’s Lotus 18 looking at the back of my dad in another Lotus 18. I must thank Stephen Bond, the owner of the car, for letting me drive it. We’ve been looking after the car recently in our workshop. I tested it in April so he said it made sense for me to drive it.”